Rolling Late-60's/Early-70's Thud-Rock Thread

Freedom also had some connection with early pre-Trower Procol Harum, not to the former's benefit. The connection is heard on <i>At Last</i>, the LP to avoid.

I still haven't found an album that sounds like Fraction's Moonblood...that album really does something to me

the first track on that Road album is somewhat similar, looking for more of that heavy psych with intense vocals!

nothing is quite like the fraction album. dragonwyck are a band that i usually listen to when i'm in that kinda mood tho. might just be because i discovered both around the same time.

for some reason i think rev.hoodoo - and you too stormy - would like the one and only five by five album on paula. unless you already own copies.

i think i would like it, too, if i could find mp3s of the bloody thing. i haven't bothered pricing it yet, but originals of anything decent are usually too rich for my blood. i'm basing my need to hear it on their cover of "7 and 7 is," which is like as blue cheer thuddin' as i've ever heard a love cover get.

"The Uniques' second album...I'm assuming you mean HAPPENING NOW!"

actually, the one i have, is their last album. shows what I know. Man, someone has to reissue those other records.

i have this one:

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/372548.jpg

We were discussing these over in the Super K thread, and they merit bringing over here...both Crazy Elephant's self-titled LP on Bell as well as the self-titled Gentrys album on Sun run about 50% heavy rock, if you're willing to wade through the bubblegum numbers. The Gentrys' LP was late in their career and can usually be found cheap. (It was even reissued on CD, on the Collectables label, with bonus tracks!)

Where is the love for Crazy Elephant?

Thank you, Billy Pilgrim, for pointing me in the direction of Squawk!

"self-titled Gentrys album on Sun"

one of my fave records. so beautiful.

i don't have the crazy elephant album, sadly. just the dark part of my mind single which i love. (well, that's the b-side, but it's the side that rules)

Not to sound like a collector geek or anything, but I have the DJ copy of Crazy Elephant's "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'" where the flipside is the same song with the pitch control slowed down and played backwards.

And the retitled it "Hips & Lips."

("Backwards B-Sides - S or D?")

I don't have any Gentry's LPs, just a bunch of singles.
Are the album cuts really that worthwhile?

dude, ian, you NEED this album:

http://www.strawberrywalrus.com/usalbums/album286.jpg

everyone does.

TM- my pleasure! (literally. i'm listening to it today myself)

"I don't have any Gentry's LPs, just a bunch of singles.
Are the album cuts really that worthwhile?"

The debut MGM album with "Keep On Dancing" is really good teenaged garage rock from '65. The followup, GENTRY TIME, is a hokey attempt to slicken up their sound. The third LP is the one shown above, and like the Uniques, by this point (1970) they were just an all-purpose bar band who made this record to show off the many styles they could do, which is why it sounds like they can't decide whether they want to play hard rock or bubblegum. There's also a note-for-note remake of Neil Young's "Cinnamon Girl" with one twist: the guitarist plays a REAL solo, rather than that one-note interlude heard on the original.

anyone know for sure whether the bang reissues are cds or cd-rs? i'm kind of wary of them because a guy who was selling them in his store said cd-rs.

They don't LOOK like cd-rs. But they do sound just a miniscule bit, I dunno, 'tinny' or something. If the source was vinyl rather than master tapes, at least they used pristine copies of the albums. So I don't think CD/CDr makes any real difference.

There's beena argument about this before but I've personally pulled identical tracks off CD-Rs and compared them to final copies on CDs and found no difference in wave forms and spectral analyses. That being the case, I'm skeptical anyone could hear a difference between the two unless the track was from sources which were distinctly different from the start.

On the other hand, CD-Rs can be cheap and deteriorate. The guy who's been peddling Starz reissues for the last seven years does it on CD-R. At one time when I was buying them he was using inferior media and they all developed read errors within two years. It's one of the few instances were I've found CD-Rs to be a problem. One other experience involved when I purchased a lot of fifty at a discount. They turned out to be readable only on the PC, PC's coming with superior drives than what you get in a commercial CD player.

As for the Bang stuff, it was never particularly high-fi to begin with. The first album's charm -- and it's their best -- was in its primitive production. As Bang brought more to the table their records became worse. Mother/Bow to the King isn't as good as the premier and the third LP isn't worth repeat listens, having almost nothing to do with what the band started out as.

my issue is i basically just don't feel like paying $15+ for cd-rs. i'm cheap, that's all. and they feel impermanent, and yes, i know, cds will probably rot to dust at some point in the future.

i actually have the lizard reissue of the first bang album, which sounds pretty good. they're kind of a spotty label, though, their nitro function reissue sounds like it's buried under a mountain of wet pillows (i don't know if the originals actually sound better, but they'd almost have to) and the mount rushmore two-fer i got has digital swimminess.

this crushed butler CD is so frustrating! just when you get really rocking it's over...too bad i guess all the other tapes were lost.

yeah!

there are a couple of other collections of jessie hector stuff - one with pretty much everything he did from the early 60s through the mildly punky late 70s stuff (the gorillas), the other just collects hammersmith gorillas material. if you use slsk, i definitely recommend checking out the one that has the helter skelter (band name) 7".

Isn't there a Crushed Butler/Third World War connection?

I just got a Jesse Hector CD last week at Dusty Groove that now resides in my "to be played" pile - looking forward to hearing it. I also scored a Harvest Records CD sampler in the cheap bin - even though it appears to be mostly prog, Edgar Broughton is on it. I bought it (a) just to see what the fuss over Broughton is, and (b) even though prog isn't my thing per se, I could probably take it in small doses on a comp like this.

Isn't there a Crushed Butler/Third World War connection?

-- Myonga Vön Bontee, Monday, January 21, 2008 5:53 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

third world war has a song called "hammersmith guerilla", so maybe that was a tribute to them or something?

I'll bet that IS what I'm thinking about! Thanks M@tt

(a) just to see what the fuss over Broughton is

oh, jesus, please just download/buy/steal/get a tape of "wasa wasa" asap.

The Broughton song on that sampler was "There's No Vibrations, But Wait!"

If that's as good as he gets, I'm gonna take a pass!

uh, it isn't. not by a long shot. wasa wasa is more like demonic, crazy acid blues shit. not recommended if you don't like beefheart-y growling vocals, twangy and grotty guitars, lurching rhythm section. otherwise highly recommended. (but don't start off with "american boy soldier," that's not typical of the rest of the album.)

"wasa wasa is more like demonic, crazy acid blues shit. not recommended if you don't like beefheart-y growling vocals, twangy and grotty guitars, lurching rhythm section."

That's what I was hoping for, but they decided to use that dorky "...No Vibrations" track for the compilation instead. Thanks for the tipoff.

Wasa Wasa seconded here. Maybe a bit of Arthur Brown as well as Beefheart, vocal-wise. And yeah, that opening doo-wop parody is the low point of the album.

The unwary or less committed can get burned by Edgar Broughton records. For example, I hate Sing Brother Sing which was something of a high point for them because hippie festivals in the UK went ape over it. Wasa Wasa is still on my shelves.

yah, wasa wasa is krazy. i love sing brother sing too. the album after. i dunno, i've liked pretty much everything i've heard from the 60's/early 70's broughton band, album-wise.

ha! x-post.

"The unwary or less committed can get burned by Edgar Broughton records. For example, I hate Sing Brother Sing which was something of a high point for them because hippie festivals in the UK went ape over it."

The first time I heard of Broughton, it was in this rock encyclopedia I had in junior high that featured a load of obscure UK acts that never made it here in the States. Broughton was one of them, and their entry had all these tales about them packing up the van and playing protest songs in parks, which just SCREAMS "hippie jam band" to me. It's only in the last decade that I've noticed Broughton's band being called "protopunk" and being compared to the MC 5 and Captain Beefheart.

Me, I heard GBOA's cover of "Call Me A Liar" before even hearing OF the Broughtons.

dropout apache:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=LxVC37rT5wU

love in the rain:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=jAfIab0sCbk

there used to be more broughton on youtube. must have got pulled.

Heya, I posted Call Me A Liar today on mah blahg. Also, Scott, I tipped my cap to your work here. Love this thread.

holy shit, yesterday's children. seward, you've got them i'm sure. great stuff. great spooky tooth cover.

i don't have their album! not even the reissue. but i want one. i love the stuff i've heard from them. they've been comped pretty heavily.

not thud per se, but fans of the riff and the heavy and the extended solo will find cool stuff on the new hotheads mix i put up today. just in case you missed it:

sweet smoke for hotheads vol.3 - beards on fire with love

threw a frantic track on there at the end. but check out the third world track and the ross one and the rabbitt one and the savage grace one and the bull track. and the tiger track. and the gangsters of love one. and especially the peace & quiet track "looney tunes" which is a fierce and way over the top heavy rock instrumental that will make you pee your pants a little if you play it loud and you are drunk. the teegarden & van winkle track is hot too. off of the only album i own with a song credited to both bob seger and gary shider.

oops, that was me scott.

I'm not 100% sure if this is what thud rock is, but today am listening to Population II by Randy Holden (ex-Blue Cheer/Other Half), and it ROCKS.

hey, you know what? my intensity mix is still up online. i thought it was long gone. well, in case you missed it the first time, here's the track listing and link:

Tracks - Street Fighting Man (So rare you won't even find it on a WFMU playlist! Seriously, many great songs and albums only exist on the interweb as part of an old FMU playlist. I know, I've checked! Anyway, Tracks were a Boston-based band and they made one triple-album(!!!) boxed set(!!!) in the early 70's of seriously accomplished hard/prog/southern rock jamz and nobody has ever heard it. But now YOU have! A little.)

Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart - It's All Happening On The Inside/Abracadabra/Jumping Jack Flash (The whole first side of Tommy & Bobby's greatest achievment is one long song/suite, so you get three interlocking parts. I've played this at least a hundred times over the years. They are my gods.)

Mandala - Come On Home (Mandala made one late-60's white soul album that yields exactly one song with a guitar solo so sharp and piercing that it will leave you bloody for weeks.)

Noah - Bury The Remains (death-pop piffle. a bit of a breather.)

Glass Harp - Changes (In The Heart Of My Own True Love) (More fireworks. Courtesy of Phil Keaggy,a guitar god if there ever was one. Three amazing albums of powerful prog/hard rock and then Phil was off to do the lord's work.)

Orion - While My Guitar Gently Weeps (*Token Novelty Number* But, you know, with lots of crazy guitars.)

Redwing - Soul Theft (rockage.)

The Gentrys - Stroll On (genius rockage. from a genius album.)

Song - Medicine Man (So hard to pick one song from this album. It's all good. This is the mammoth closer. It has to be the heaviest thing that Curt Boettcher ever had a hand on.)

Circus - Stop Wait & Listen (Local pop-rock band from Ohio makes an album of cool rocking stuff, puts it out on their own label, and then...well, nothing. This one coulda been big. Maybe.)

Terry Brooks & Strange - Mister Strange (This is what cult guitar heroes are made of. From 1980 and released on Terry's own Star People Records.)

Harvey Mandel - Bite The Electric Eel (Noodles! Lots and lots of noodles!)

The Max Demian Band - See Me Comin' Down (Cool Thin Lizzy rip from Herman Hesse obsessed hard rockers.)

Dirty Angels - You Got Me Runnin' (Another great album from an unjustly forgotten band. This thing just keeps on giving.)

A Foot In Cold Water - Yalla Yae (Canucks invent the new wave of british heavy metal years before the fact and don't even break a sweat.)

Valhalla - I'm Not Askin' (Again, hard to pick one song. One of my fave records of all time. Along with label-mates The Damnation Of Adam Blessing, Valhalla were made of greater stuff than most. Now on CD! I think.)

Underground Sunshine - Gimme Some Lovin' (Best known for their Beatles Birthday cover, this is simply 8 minutes of senseless mindless fuzz abuse.)

Thee Image - Show Your Love (Unbelievably over-the-top. A friggin' monument to over-the-top. A word to the wise: always buy a record if someone in the band is wearing a cape on the back cover.)

http://dutchtoenglish.com/Intensity%20In%209%20&%20A%20Half%20Cities.mp3

not all "thud", but, you know, rockage and such. still sounds good. i'm listening to it now. cheaper than a bevis frond comp.

and you can still listen to side one of my last hotheads mix. for some reason side two cuts off after the track by the esperanto orchestra. here's side one:

(1971) curtiss/maldoon - man from afghanistan

(1970) houston - hairy one

(1972) teegarden & van winkle (with bruce) - going down

(1970) bull - feelin' pretty good

(1976) tiger - ordinary girl

(1973) gangsters of love - never is too soon

(1975) rockin' horse - love do me right

(1971) guillotine - hands of children

(1974) aut' chose - le freak de montreal

(1971) peace & quiet - looney tunes

http://www.dutchtoenglish.com/skotmix-hotheads-3-1.mp3

side one is fuckin' killer. that hotheadz mix was the best one i did. i think.

Damn, I only have 2 of those records and i want them all..... and I recently passed on a Damnation of Adam Blessing record- should have known.

newest skull sessions podcast has martin popoff and others discussing dust, ram jam, ursa major, etc, etc, etc,

if you are into that kind of thing:

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/news/SHOCKWAVES-SKULL-SESSIONS-PODCAST-EPISODE-20-19891.aspx

(i haven't actually listened to it, but it looks like a good time for all...)

new Up All Night comp on Past & Present is great! just a superb sampler of hard rockin' psych stuff. kudos!

i think it's out now or very soon.

track-listing:

1. LIQUID SMOKE Warm Touch 2. TIN HOUSE Be Good And Be Kind 3. THE LITTER Journeys 4. THE FINCHLEY BOYS Outcast 5. HIGHWAY ROBBERY Fifteen 6. EUCLID Gimme Some Lovin’ 7. DAMNATION OF ADAM BLESSING Driver 8. SRC Up All Night 9. BANG The Queen 10. DRAGONFLY Enjoy Yourself 11. GRANICUS You’re In America 12. STEEPLECHASE Wrought Iron Man 13. SIR LORD BALTIMORE Kingdom Come 14. JAMUL All You Have Left Is Me 15. POWER OF ZEUS In The Night 16. HAYSTACKS BALBOA The Children Of Heaven 17. THIRD POWER Persecution 18. YESTERDAY’S CHILDREN Providence Bummer 19. HEAD OVER HEELS Road Runner 20. LANDSLIDE Sad and Lonely

Highway Robbery track is so friggin' FIERCE.

decent looking comp, although I have a lot of it. I love that Highway Robbery track .. definitely the highlight of their one LP. I used to play that all the time on my Thud-rock themed radio show. and "Up All Night" has always been my favorite SRC track. do I really need "Persecution" on yet another comp tho? I don't think so. there *are* other good songs on that Third Power lp.

I still think the two heavy psych comps that Bevis Frond put out are the ones to beat. introduced me to a lot of stuff i didn't already know.

Scott, you need a copy of the Highway Robbery lp? I have a spare ....

I just got to hear the Chico Magnetic Band album (I'm sure it was mentioned on here somewhere) and I'm totally in love! Great sound, particularly the percussion.

Now I just need to track down a reasonably priced copy...